Is it the same tail that’s been taking pictures? Or a different creep? I never expected to have a surfeit of creeps snapping photos of me, but I guess that’s life now.
Or at least, that’s what it was. Now, though?
Who knows?
RJ leads us to the front door, his hands shaking as he gets his key in the lock, the space dark and quiet. Until the cat throws a full on fit in the bag, then RJ can hardly keep it on his shoulder as we stumble into the room.
“Damn it, cat, I’m not trying to hurt you,” he grumbles, setting the bag carefully by the mats as I set my backpack next to the wiggling duffel.
“What now?”
RJ flicks on the lights, and even though he says nothing, I know he’s saying goodbye. It’ll probably be the only goodbye he gets. Then he turns, dropping his backpack next to mine and unzipping his coat.
“Now we spar. In an hour, we’ll sneak out the back door and walk to the house.”
“I can get behind this plan,” I say, my nervous energy needing an outlet more than anything. This will help.
We both strip down to our street clothes, and I hope whoever is out there doesn’t realize how strange that is. RJ grabs some pads, and I meet him in the middle of the mats.
My first few strikes are sloppy enough that even I can tell they’re shit, but after a few corrections, my body remembers what it’s been learning, and soon, sweat collects against my skin.
“Switch?” I ask.
“Sure. Make sure you keep your knees bent and let your arms break with my hits.”
His hits have more power than I expect, and I’m reminded again that while I know this man intimately, there are years of his life that I still know little about. Years spent in places like this, learning to fight, teaching others to fight. He might be a quiet hacker, but he’s an athlete too. He just doesn’t flaunt it.
His warm-up lasts twice as long as mine, but then he’s tugging the pads from my hands and throwing them across the mats. “Want to learn some take downs?”
“Why not?”
He walks me through a series of moves that will have him on his back on the mat and me pinning him down if I do it right, and we spend a while practicing it slowly until I have it down.
“Ready for real?” he asks.
“Nope, but come at me.”
He does, and my body does exactly what I just schooled it to do, and with surprising dexterity, I have him flat on his back, pinned under me, both of us panting. And as the moment stretches, the miasma of fear and nervous energy morphs into something with a hell of a lot more purpose.
I press my lips to his cheek, eyes wide, hoping he’s in the same headspace I’m in. One second later, we’re tearing each other’s shirts off, my bra yanked down, my nails scraping over his bare chest as he licks and nips at my nipple, his hands dragging me over the growing ridge in his pants. We both groan, the pure need pounding through my veins unlike anything I’ve felt before.
The connection, the meeting of skin to skin, the honest, base, unfettered desire surges, and I yank off his pants before struggling out of mine.
Then I’m back on him, rubbing against him, every stroke over him making him harder and my clit zing with pleasure.
The cat yodels from the side of the room, but we both ignore it, caught up in each other. “I need you inside me,” I say.
“God yes.”
The stretch and burn of him pressing in with no preparation has my body on fire. A searing reminder that I’m here. I’m free to be with who I want, when I want. My life. My body.
RJ shudders as I rise and lower again, working him deep inside me as he chases my breasts with sloppy, open-mouthed kisses, wet and needy. Then he hikes up onto his elbows and stays transfixed as I finally sink all the way down, our pelvises meeting.
We stay, panting, his gaze locked on where we’re connected as I ride him, grinding against him every time I drop, taking my pleasure from him as he watches, his breath short and his skin glittering in the harsh light. I’m controlling this, not with force, but with aching purpose and a steady rhythm. And for the first time in what feels like forever, I feel it.
Power.
Power over myself. Dominion over my body, my pleasure, my wants taking precedence over other’s needs.
